I just picked this guy up for $170. brand new. yamah has discontinued them and some stores have dropped the prices a couple hundred dollars. Very useful for live stuff, but as the previous review stated, a bit noisy for recording. Although the Wurlitzer and CP70B are so dead on, I will still use them. The original instruments were much noisier anyway. The Rhodes piano are interesting, but a little difficult to use because of the abrupt switch between high and low velocity samples. The bright pianos do sound very good, very playable, and do cut through nicely. The clavs are appropriately thin and bouncy. The DX pianos are nice too, although they are too tinny in the upper register. For $170. and weighing in at 2 1/2 lbs., you can't go wrong throwing this thing in your bag for a gig. Beats the crap out of the Alesis NanoPiano and has more useful pianos than the Kurzweil Micro Piano. Great tool.

Rating: 4 out of 5
posted Thursday-Jan-21-1999 at 19:54

Jason Lifton
a professional user
from USA
writes:

When I first heard this piece I was dazzled; it was so much brighter and full of character than its similarly-priced peers, the Roland P-55 and Kurzweil Micropiano. I've used it on jazz and rock gigs and it always cuts through the mix like no other piano module I've owned. However, it has three severe shortcomings: The sample loops are too short in the high range, giving you a crips attack but not much else, and some of the mid and low notes have this very audible "pffff" in addition to the note. I didn't notice any of that until I tried it in my studio setup, listening very carefully. The third problem is that playing it quietly simply sounds like a low-volume version of playing it loudly, whereas it should have been a sample of a quiet piano. Overall, I would love to own this module for almost any jazz or rock combo gig, but in an exposed setting it may let you down. Still, it's got tons of character.